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Douglas Rollain

Lion Nebula SH2-132 - RC71

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Posts Made By: Jim Thommes

May 11, 2009 05:24 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

M13 and a sad MaxIm story!!

Posted By Jim Thommes
Tyler, M13 looks great. Call me oldfashion, but I generally wait to see the first full subframe come in before I am off to other things (like sleep). I do not use Maxium, but I can see from your description how easy it is to do what you did.

May 12, 2009 06:47 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Dust within dust

Posted By Jim Thommes
Tom,
Great image. I love the layered dust as well as the little reflection nebula. Still playing with the data, hmmm... Does it get better than this?

May 12, 2009 06:58 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Rho Ophi Complex

Posted By Jim Thommes
Thanks for the comments folks!
Dan, As you can see, I have corrected the spelling error - I guess that's just the engineer in me to do such a thing.
Greg, YeahI generally have to restrain my self on the saturation tool - I just couldn't help myself on this region though. I did go back to Photoshop for a quick look on saturation - I think you are right, it may be worth a repost.

May 13, 2009 05:37 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Comments Please

Posted By Jim Thommes
Bob,
Nice one. Like the others say a stack of 16 or so should produce a great image.

I am wondering if you set a low white point though. It seems as though there may be some lost detail in the core areas. If this is not stretched, you may want to consider an additional stack of shorter subs to get more core detail.

May 13, 2009 05:44 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Rho Ophi Complex

Posted By Jim Thommes
Ivan, Jason, Thanks for your kind comments.

I did take the opportunity to soften the saturation a bit based on Greg's suggestion. I think I like it better. I have used the modified image on the web page for you to see.

http://www.jthommes.com/Astro/DSLR/Rho_Ophi.htm

For comparison, the old image can be accessed here:

http://www.jthommes.com/Astro/DSLR/Images/RhoOphi_S150-3_5_PS4GBminCblu_med.jpg

Any opinions?

May 21, 2009 04:02 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

PHD guiding question

Posted By Jim Thommes
Charlie,
Is it the object image or the guide star image that gradually shifts? Assuming the guide star stays put and it is the object image shifting, I would say **dollars to donuts** that it is differential flexure between the 2 OTA's. Even if one of the scopes is an SCT, it is unlikely a mirror shift as these tend to be inconsistent and sudden.

My best results with diff flexure is to balance both OTA's for the center point of the ring or rail mounting system. This is different from DEC and RA balance on a GEM. Sure, you have to have your GEM balanced. But you can have a perfectly balanced GEM and your OTA's can be way out of balance to the center of the ring/rail mount. Be sure the balance includes cameras and make sure the focusers aren't flexing either.

my 2 cents worth.

May 21, 2009 04:25 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

NGC6543 Cats Eye in Draco

Posted By Jim Thommes
Mike,
That's a really cool image. It gives me some ideas about what I can try on this object.

May 21, 2009 04:30 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

IC 1311 in Cygnus

Posted By Jim Thommes
Image looks like it has a good start Jeff - nice one. This is indeed a rich area. An H-Alpha filtered set of exposures would be a nice addition in the data.

May 21, 2009 04:38 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Gobs o' galaxies

Posted By Jim Thommes
Amazing shot. What part of the sky was tony shooting?

May 23, 2009 03:19 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

LBN 406 in Draco

Posted By Jim Thommes
Tom,
You do like to pick the hard ones to try out new things. grin I like the idea about separate RGB files. It kind of adapts the processing to a flow that you are familiar with.

The image came out really nice. Its a target I had not seen before.

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